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In the last decade, shale reservoirs emerged as one of the fast growing hydrocarbon
resources in the world unlocking vast reserves and reshaping the landscape of the oil and
gas global market. Gas-condensate reservoirs represent an important part of these
resources. The key feature of these reservoirs is the condensate banking which reduces
significantly the well deliverability when the condensate forms in the reservoir below the
dew point pressure. Although the condensate banking is a well-known problem in
conventional reservoirs, the very low permeability of shale matrix and unavailability of
proven pressure maintenance techniques make it more challenging in shale reservoirs.
The nanoscale range of the pore size in the shale matrix affects the gas flow which deviates
from laminar Darcy flow to Knudsen flow resulting in enhanced gas permeability.
Furthermore, the phase behaviour of gas-condensate fluids is affected by the high capillary
pressure in the matrix causing higher condensate saturation than in bulk conditions. A good
understanding and an accurate evaluation of how the condensate builds up in the reservoir
and how it affects the gas flow is very important to manage successfully the development of
these high-cost hydrocarbon resources.
This work investigates the gas Knudsen flow under condensate saturation effect and phase
behaviour deviation under capillary pressure of gas-condensate fluids in shale matrix with
pore size distribution; and evaluates their effect on well productivity.
Supplementary MATLAB codes are provided elsewhere on OpenAIR: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2145